silenced by the government security forces in today's iraq journalists who speak out are routinely imprisoned beaten or just simply killed seems to be a high level of intolerance or dissent or for public criticism of either government policies or of particular leaders use it all to me a freelance journalist should r.t. some shocking youtube footage from the protests this february that explicitly show iraqi security forces targeting him because he's a journalist. he shouts which is arabic for journalist over and over again but it makes the police more violent three or four maybe five right police were around me one of them slapped me in the had other one kicked me in the and they kind of you know grabbed me fast yousif managed to escape arrest thanks to two foreign journalists who intervened but since the arrest of one of his

colleagues he stopped covering protests altogether it became hard for journalists for example to go to tahrir square i myself i don't go there i stopped there long time ago not because. i'm not that scared to be arrested. you know i'm worried to be mistreated we tried to speak to journalists who've been arrested in baghdad but everyone was too afraid to appear on camera so we came up here to the more peaceful kurdish region to see if the situation was any different here i met ahmed a young photographer who was arrested while covering similar protests in the kurdish region but after the interview he called to tell me he was scared of reprisals from the government and asked to blur his face and change his name after his arrest in april and was imprisoned for four days and tortured. six men came to the room and started to shout at me and to beat me with cables then they gave me electric shocks they wanted me to admit that i hadn't been at the protest. when he

was finally released after four days a friend took pictures of his wounds and published them in a local magazine immediately ahmed was rearrested as a punishment for publicizing his initial arrest. came and they held me for three days and made me sign a document declaring that i would not talk to the press again back in baghdad the government spokesman admitted to r.t. that individuals in the iraqi government were indeed using their powers to silence the press not just that people been. using bit but this is again is not protected by the government the government is against that and i think and you could see that there are people in the midst of interior for example they have misusing their their power against the citizen and that is this year and that is they keep accountable and some of them has been fired almost nine years after the invasion u.s. troops are home but one of the country they're leaving behind with politicians using the security forces to silence journalists it appears that iraq lacks any

credible press freedom or freedom that is essential to any democratic country sebastian meyer r t iraq. on our web site where asking what do you think will happen to. iraq now that u.s. forces have left the sound the bulk of opinions that the country is slipping into total chaos and quarter of actors and things calm and oneness with the same number think iraq is willing to throw the us government to determine their own future and less than ten percent say iraq will develop into a western style democracy where you can log on to. and your views. a suicide bombing that killed up to twenty six people in the syrian capital has heightened tensions between the government and the opposition the attack apparently targeted a police bus most of the casualties are said to have been civilians comes as league monitors who are assessing violence in the country are due to give their first report this weekend and to government protesters rallied out of the blast blaming

the syrian government for the bot and send an international intervention to jordan based political analyst. says the bombing is a sign that an armed opposition is actively trying to destabilize the country. right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful and there were many incidents of. gangs perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course there were denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts are a clear indication that there are gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they're not aiming the aggression only against the regime but against the whole syrian people the whole syrian obviously what we where we have witnessed in syria is that the revolution but actually it is

a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the syria to change the whole area has nothing to do with democracy and freedom. and that there are certain forces international forces local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the geopolitical reasons. respective all the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people on the whole area. well that still ahead this hour the man who brings hollywood to moscow the american printing stars and studios to russia as today's pathfinder explains how he's succeeding in developing moscow's if you can actually. fix the economy what should they be doing. pumping more money you. pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions and trillions. the president is in new york to ask how people there would

go about fixing the struggling global economy. orthodox christians worldwide celebrating christmas day for the julian calendar weapon eva celebrate the birth of christ thirteen days off the western worshipers it also marks the end of a forty day fast around two hundred million people from the eastern tradition one of the oldest christian countries georgian worshippers began the holy day with midnight mass meanwhile in bosnia carried branches to be burned as part of their christmas ritual the belief to warm the community with no. intolerance. was at midnight mass christ the savior cathedral in moscow. all the christians celebrating christmas and here in russia ushered in with a traditional service here at the christ say because in the center of the russian

capital now that service presided over by the patriarch of moscow and all russia kirill it's all the russian orthodox church attended by. well the great and the good the dignitaries old russian society president to me. as well as see me a pig is attending this church service around five thousand people in total crammed into the christ the savior you can see. actually taking places around the outskirts of the cathedral to just try and get a view of the church something what was going on inside it of course to hear the bells that had been ringing out. of jesus christ now. question it always comes up is why is christmas being celebrated in january now this is due to the fact that the russian orthodox church as well as some other branches all the docs christianity. as opposed to the

calendar used by western christianity which means that in russia as well as other countries christmas falls on the seventh of january huge day in the old calendar and something that has become a real tradition here in russia opening in one thousand nine hundred seven the traditional christmas. christ the savior. continues online as we bring you more christmas celebrations here in russia. you can see the full of christmas address and. also online the. bombs. to create.

more on the far. end there in business in russia today. used to be a restaurateur. until the signing one day behind hollywood's. schools of actors and bands to the country. uhl bitter taste. i basically ended up moving to russia all by accident in one thousand and ninety eight i was asked by a russian friend in los angeles if i could bring a hollywood studio to moscow because mayor luzhkov was interested in building multiplex cinemas and wanted a hollywood studio partner i had friends that were running warner brothers they sent head of international theatres with me gosh my my first trip was very

impressionable i couldn't understand how so many young people i was meeting were making tens of millions of dollars a year and some of them millionaires before they were thirty and these were some of the things that made me realize there's a lot of opportunity here there's not a lot of people who are doing hollywood business there hasn't been a lot of contact and interaction with celebrities i love a challenge what could be more challenging than moving to russia and trying to develop and create a business here ross with a real i didn't know any actors but i started meeting them just to bring them to russia or working on that project the russian comedy that's going to shoot in america steven seagal zola he told me they'll do a couple days for two hundred fifty thousand dollars bail kilmer's interested in helping out. then the wealthy russian started asking for other people and i just started calling everybody i knew in l.a.

who knew a producer a new a director and i called them from russia after eight years i brought over eighty actors and bands to russia i think it's very important for you to go to los angeles with me in the next few months and we should meet with you hopefully make your goals using a different actors you would like to do cameos in this film the biggest challenge to overcome is gaining people's trust and performing one example is recently i was asked to bring john claude van damme to chechnya for the president's birthday and day of the city and. live music because the other one i go to only in my heart. it's a place most people are very afraid to go to of course john clyde you know his expenses need to be paid and others for him to go there and it's very frightening dealing and working with chechnyan friends knowing that if something went wrong didn't come and money is paid. who are people going to come calling and looking for asking for

the money back and it took a long time for me to win people's confidence that they would send money to an actor or a band in advance russia it costs more than a lot of other parts of the world because russians have been willing to pay more you know if russians weren't willing to pay more celebrities would be coming for less but when they have people making such big offers just to get them how can you refuse so russia's been great to help push up their prices jennifer lopez gets two million dollars to go and perform you know in russia and kazakhstan and some other places if you're american in the u.s. we understand our system how to set up a business so we can easily research any product or any idea we have to find out if it's been saturated or not in russia it's really different because it's so hard to get to the important people that make the decisions when i have to work with a person who works for someone here i get nowhere i can't do

a deal because they need to see so much because their jobs on the line their names on the line they're so afraid that just drags on and drags on whatever i'm talking to them about when you can pick up the phone and call the head of the company or someone on the board of directors i know in a week if i can do this deal or not with them rush is just much more individual life you really need to know some important people here to have success you know i was thinking your from your which. part of the reason i never learned russian is i just start one year from now i'm sure something will come up back in the l.a. us all go back i'll start doing movies but exciting here every day so many new things and new deals and new opportunities and i haven't been able to leave. well from making money to losing it. to the public take over attacking the world's

debt troubles. people in new york to get their tips for the politicians and. today everyone's upset with how the world leaders are handling the economy so how would you fix that this week let's talk about that whole country do you think is doing a good job. let me say. you know now. what would you do to fix the problem in greece. in greece wow. i don't know. because i know i say no no no maybe that's why it's going over on a good word fixes each of our problems personally so for all working hard and spending money to local communities. you know our way of part of building up each

local community eventually the whole country. yes in a time maybe for the government to stop trying to fix it and let people and companies fix their own wallets i think that's a good answer yes to fix the economy what should they be doing. should be pumping more money into it pumping more money they've been pumping millions and billions in trillions and done a good so why is that the solution that we keep going back to the only thing we can do so they can also say just do nothing and let people sort it out themselves. people. not a matter of not throwing money into the economy it's a matter of living with. means if you don't have enough revenue then you have to cut spending yes so governments are trillions of dollars in debt so it sounds like they have no money right well they have to obviously you can't stop everything all at once but you do have to you do have to pull back and you have to come up with a reasonable plan to stop the hemorrhaging but we don't just keep printing money

and we don't keep inflating government so that's why most of the european countries are having trouble because the government is sixty percent larger than it should be so why why do you and i see business and government leaders. can't because we don't get paid by the people that are behind the scenes and since i'm not ready for a campaign campaign contributions by people that need my help to american politicians are just. really so what should they be doing better. other probably trying to change the economy from an oil economy to something else we've got heaps of people with lots of brains and. doing something about the environment does people with brains are in positions of power. so it seems like with the system that's currently in place for how world leaders get elected it might be time for solutions to come from someplace else.

as the taliban prepares to open up a political office in qatar the u.s. has indicated it's ready to back the initiative is seen as a crucial step towards peace talks between nato and its longtime enemy. also wants high ranking taliban prisoners to be freed from guantanamo bay. to contribute to any that he was that could signal a major american defeat the decade long conflict. uncle sam has just recently authorized the opening up the official office for the taliban in. the opening detail about an office doesn't bode well because he affectively has been cut from this wheeling and dealing between americans and tail of it on the other side americans it looks like a real deal it looks like they have accepted demands by the taliban that is to keep cutting government out of the loop and asked for taliban themselves to look

like one in the only winners in this shadow in negotiation the. taliban open out their office they might as well door in it to nameplates the calls from the counterinsurgency doctrine first if we are not winning we are losing and dressed for the us armed forces and second losing we are winning for the taliban themselves. what are some of the main nice from around the world now and first a tragedy new zealand where a hothead balloon burst into flames after hitting power lines killing people on board two of those who died had jumped out of the basket in desperation before the balloon plummeting to the ground and zealand's deadliest and disaster the most. mass crowds have gathered in yemen's capital the suspicions grow that present sunday with the neighbor has

a plan to quit the protest is also one of its prisoners held signs on tests. as it should be to swiss and they will use the country's own rest to stay in power despite signing a region the back deal to control to his vice president in exchange for the immunity. not spoken human rights activist in the rain has been hospitalized what is known. said was a police beating of an anti-government protest. was allegedly hit on the head and face with sticks and biophysics the government says police found him injured while participating in an on with rise much remains the shiite majority began campaigning for more rights from the sunni in utica. trying to bring you more of russia close up as we continue to explore the country's far east.

we have our oscar regionalize on the chinese border and is russia's main gateway to the pacific it's also a center of coal and wood exports to the heavily populated in fuel hungry asian economies but as our teams tom barton discovered keeping industry alive there doesn't have to be at the expense of tradition. the baro screeching in russia's far east is becoming a growing center for export to the hungry economies in the south china south korea and japan increasing material exports of warden coal are going out to the pacific and south and it's that that we're looking at in my report. this monster called coal stacker is the new face of russia's far east coast it can load over four thousand tons of coal an hour into ships at this rapidly expanding sea terminal

this year they exported ten million tons of the stuff almost exclusively south asian markets which was the board we've noticed there's a cool boom of coal consumption worldwide has increased so these ports covers almost all of asia from the con comes from some of russia's largest deposits five hundred monitors in the joins the oil and flowing out of the region in ever greater quantities tugboats maneuver the ships into place through storms and the winter cold and even the most modern tankers once on their way to helped along by a much older technology all down this vast new ship internals are springing up to supply overseas markets go old see very foundations presented by this like caps which long for help makes a russia's gateway to the pacific hundreds. lighthouses dot the coast all the way from the border with north korea up to the arctic. victor has been marrying

his lighthouse for over thirty years but he's glad he's not too far out into the wilderness. we're close enough to the nearest town other lighthouse keepers are stuck out in the tiger without even roads sometimes a ship or helicopter deliver supplies there's no other way to come or go big has not had a ship run aground since the early one nine hundred ninety s. he's seen bears moose and tigers visit his lighthouse and say as he never grows bored of the ever changing seascape far from feeling lonely he talks of the remand to system being such a secluded spot on the coastline you know i used to go down to the bay of florida am catching crabs and start a fire then my wife and kids would join me and we have breakfast on the shore and watch the sunrise locals but in the summer this whole field would be right orange and blue if you could about victory times next year he says he's come to love the

spotlight robinson crusoe sign on and while he can remember the pristine beauty of his coastline others are seeing it sail on into the future. with his talk a little bit more about for boston the experience of moving here from abroad is the main a holiday that came here from britain now about ask itself is trying to upgrade itself trying to move into the wealth of the city a touch of the modern and modern age with industry but also working on a new cosmodrome what do you know about the new developments i know that is very very important to them for their. reading trance what they want to find it funny investing fice which is obviously going to be very good if any i'm here because my fiance's working for an oil refinery in a more investment there and this was a general sense that i think any group. because it was one of the biggest and most important projects it's happening in russia so yes big it's up and coming this is

region because someone who's come from a different culture side what would you say to people who are thinking. there is possibly business gigi's but should i come what would you say. to the chinese how did during a russian with this important very restaurants a cafe so they have an english menu and things like that i think when i don't speak russian people find it frustrating rather than think so i'd bet that in mind prices because they price extortionate but. they give it a go choice of intervention will only go that's an insight from someone who has made believe outs to the far east to her boss it's not going to get me warmer here but it seems that with huge with the development of the region it is going to get more connected to the outside. bottom line a few minutes the story of

a man who embarks on a self-appointed mission to protect the us from illegal migrants before that's the headlines in a few moments. wealthy british style. is no time to write my book.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report. on.

now no it's not about spilling blood. just a war of barricades from one side and fears blockade from the other. the an. invisible border has cut people from the land for twelve years. the conflict that divided serbia into two hostile parts is still not over.

brighton. move. from plans to pressure. starts on t.v. dot com. welcome back a recap of our top stories now with american troops out of iraq concerns on mounting of what's being left behind is proving deadly for journalists who say they're being tortured by police for speaking out against the government. a suicide blast that killed twenty six people in syria's capital. from both leaders and opposition supporters and that was behind the attack. christmas has come from millions of orthodox christians around the globe for the jew in town and. in our r t the story

of an american who says he's at the front lawn is saving his country by controlling its border with mexico. we had to earn it i mean we have to earn it every single day of our lives we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills and we have to do it and that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the last life figure spoken like the great granddaughters when they were. yeah yes mike well we're all they were all immigrants as well that we all came from somewhere else and there's a tolerance where there's only so much that the united states can accept without severe economic consequence. i'm not afraid i never have been i'm not hiding that flag has been up here for a year and a half and i was dead i will die.